Police in Xi’an, the capital of China’s Shaanxi province, have seized more than 20 thousand kilograms of pork being sold off as halal beef products. The pork had been treated with chemicals such as paraffin wax and industrial salts to make it look like beef.

Halal meat accounts for up to 15% of meat sales in the UK yet the options for Muslim foodies, or ‘haloodies’, are limited. But a new halal food festival hopes to highlight a market waiting to be tapped.

The company, which processes its halal-certified poultry meat in a plant 10 minutes from the centre of town, says it has expanded throughput sevenfold over the last eight years, and is now looking to take on more farmers.

One company seeking to profit from Britain’s taste for halal, worth an estimated £3bn, is DB Foods, the country’s largest meat wholesaler. This week they will launch a new online business, halal2go, to sell direct to consumers.